Crimson Masquerade
by TitaniaSarys
Summary: AU. Raising a kid is hard. Raising a kid alone is harder. Raising a kid alone with a demanding job and all the other moms laughing behind her back sometimes seems impossible. But one smile from her angel is enough to make it all worth. Add to that a nice guy, best friends, a well payed job and it might not be that bad. Rated M for strong language and possible violent content.
1. Birthday at the Romanoffs

**Hi guys! I hope you're doing great! Here's a new story, I just had to write it down, I had a dream that night and so this story came out of it. First Avengers fic, but it was bound to happen since I've been watching the movies and cartoons and reading the comics for two months now. Hope you'll enjoy it. Reviews are always welcome and appreciated!**

 **TS**

* * *

One of the things Natasha loved most was picking up her son from school. Unfortunately, she couldn't always do that, hell, sometimes she didn't see him for days because of her job. That was the only thing she complained about when it came to her work. Of course, it was better than what she had before, the pay was better and she never got bored. Having a job with hours changing every week had its advantages, one of them being that she sometimes could spend three days straight with James and she loved it.

The only thing she loved more than spending time with her son was the little guy himself. And today was actually his sixth birthday.

It broke her heart every time she had to tell him she wouldn't be able to pick him up because of work, which wasn't a problem in itself since she had friends who could take care of the little man, but when she told him the day before that she had to cancel all their plans for his birthday, her heart broke in two. She had seen the way he tried to brush it off as if it wasn't important, he always acted brave when things didn't go as planned, something he had inherited from his father. Through the years, he had gotten used to be picked up by uncle Clint or aunt Jane but every time Natasha was the one to do it, it felt like a special day. She just loved how he got excited when he saw her standing with the other moms. How his smile lit up his face and made his green eyes shine.

Natasha's face remained serious as she leaned against the gates of the schoolyard, the other moms around her. She heard them whisper but didn't react. She was perfectly aware of what the others, especially the entire mom community of New York, said about her in her back. It sometimes made her want to punch a wall and at those moments she unintentionally let out some curses, either in English or Russian, but immediately told James not to repeat them. It was a secret rule between them. Every time Natasha said a curse, James would pull at her sleeve or hand and tell her she said a bad word. Natasha was surprised and pleased that he never repeated them, probably because he didn't understand those in Russian at least.

She knew she wasn't a perfect mom. Hell, she wasn't even supposed to be one in the first place! She had never dreamed about marriage, kids and a beautiful house in the suburbs. Her shit life had taken all her dreams away from her and she had found herself new ones: have a carrier in the job she'd chosen, meet a nice guy even if she wasn't the engagement type and since James came along, gave him the best life possible. Usually she didn't give a fuck about what the other moms said, that she wasn't fit to be a mother, that she got dumped by her kid's father, that she probably had to sell her body to afford a car like hers (which she had earned fair and square, by the way, working like everybody else) and that she wouldn't raise James right.

That last one was the only one that made her pounce. She didn't care that she scared and disgusted the other mothers, but she wouldn't allow them to isolate her kid. So she had talked to those gossipers, smiled politely and introduced her kid when he was old enough to attend elementary school. It took some months but James was well integrated among the other kids now, he was also very social and nice and had a lot of friends. She wasn't worried about him anymore; she just prayed she would do her job as a mom well enough for him to become a decent guy. And that she would live long enough to see it.

Part of her plan to make him happy was his birthday and she smiled as she waited for him, a little away from all the moms, leaning against the metal gate painted yellow.

* * *

 _Eight hours ago – in Director Fury's office, SHIELD HQ_

"You got to be kidding me!"

Natasha rose from her seat, a wide smile spread on her face.

"You're actually telling me I have the afternoon off? And the _night_ off?"

Fury nodded solemnly just like he always did when he spoke business. His hands were clasped in front of him and he was comfortably leaning back in his chair. A dark eye patch covered his left eye and his head was bald. He was also entirely clad in black, something Natasha used to be too, until James came along and she tried to bring some colors into her wardrobe.

"Yes, you just have to escort the Minister of Finance this morning to his monthly meeting, nothing too dangerous, just a routine op. But with what happened two weeks ago to the Minister of Agriculture, we're never too careful."

Natasha jumped up and down from excitement and she would have hugged Nick Fury if he wasn't her boss and she didn't have so much respect for him. She didn't leave him time to change his mind and grabbed her jacket.

"You have no idea how happy you just made the Romanoff's! James will have an awesome birthday thanks to you!"

She added before heading for the door, her happy and excited smile still plastered on her lips. Fury smiled when she was gone. He knew it was James' sixth birthday and he had hated himself when he told Natasha she'd have to work that day and entire evening. But luckily, the client that needed their services (and who had personally asked for Natasha herself since she was the best at SHIELD) had cancelled his flight.

Once Natasha was out of the building, she got into her black Corvette and drove to her apartment. She called Laura Barton, her best friend's wife, to tell her that she would be able to pick James up so her little man wouldn't have to go to the Barton's again. Although with Clint's kids, he would have had a blast. Once she was home, she prepared everything. She didn't back a cake, unfortunately because she sucked at cooking, she simply knew how to cook basic stuff like pasta and how to make an omelet. She cooked for James every morning and evening, but it was never anything grandiose or taken from a cooking book. She liked to make it simple and James didn't complain as long as he was allowed to eat sweets and pizza from time to time. So she had bought a cake, a chocolate one at that, knowing it was his favorite.

As she was wrapping up his present, her head automatically looked at the clock in the joined living room and kitchen, as if on cue. It was time to pick up James so she quickly finished gluing the red ribbon on top, hid the present in her closet under a pile of clothes and grabbed her car keys.

* * *

The first kids that came out weren't in James' class so Natasha simply stayed where she was, her arms crossed on her chest, her face dead serious. _Icy serious_ , as the moms said. They had nicknamed her Ice Queen and some of the kids had even started calling her Elsa. To which Natasha simply shrugged. James had liked the movie, even though it wasn't in his top ten favorite because it was a "girl's movie" like he said, so Natasha was fine with it. Besides, she was born in Russia, she was used to the cold and had heard countless jokes involving her and the cold throughout her life.

One of the moms came to her and Natasha instinctively turned her head and politely smiled when she recognized the woman, although she had heard the heavy noise of her high heels miles away.

Sharon Carter was a bitch in Natasha's book. She was rich only thanks to her husband, herself doing nothing the whole day long. Natasha understood the importance of raising the kids and spending as much time as possible with them, but they lived in the twenty first century for fuck's sake! As a single mom, Natasha didn't have the luxury of being in Sharon's position. She didn't envy her because of that, she simply got frustrated every time she heard her high pitched voice and how much nonsense that woman was able to tell in five minutes. But she politely smiled at the literal definition of lazy parasite that stood in front of her.

Her makeup was so fake, Natasha wondered if Sharon's face would feel like plastic if she punched her. Sure, she knew the important of makeup because she often had to use it for covers during her job, but she hated wearing it otherwise. Or maybe on a date, but besides that and work, that was it. She didn't also care if her red hair didn't look shiny or if her curls fell weirdly around her face. She didn't care if she had dark circles around her eyes or if her cheeks were too pale. She also didn't care if her leather black jacket and simple jeans weren't sexy or lady-like. All she cared about her appearance when she came to pick up her son was if the gun tucked behind her back was visible or not.

"Dear Natasha! How are you today?" Sharon asked with a too-happy-to-be-true tone.

"Great, thanks."

She often asked that question back, but right now, she just didn't feel like it and didn't give a damn if she was being rude. Once the first step of small talk (one of many, unfortunately) was done, Natasha turned her head to the door but no other children came out yet.

"I wanted to ask you about the party. Do you remember, I asked you last week if James and you would be attending Felicity's birthday party this weekend?"

Natasha's head was brought back to Sharon and she stifled an annoyed sigh.

"Of course, we'd love too! I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I was very busy with work, so sorry!"

Nope, she wasn't sorry one bit. But that thing this weekend involved James. Had she been alone she would have said no right away, but she had talked about it to James and he wanted to go to be with his friends, Felicity being one of them. The girl wasn't so bad, once you forgot the obnoxious brat she was when she didn't get the present she wanted. Apart from that, she had always been nice towards James and Natasha too, so everything was fine.

"That's wonderful!" Sharon smiled and her golden locks tumbled a bit on her shoulders, attracting Natasha's attention away from those fake eyelashes smeared with black. "I'll see you Sunday at three then!" And just like that, she walked away, leaving a scent of expensive perfume Natasha whipped away with her hand. Gosh! She hated people that spilled the entire bottle on them every morning.

At that moment, the next class was out and James was among the kids. He held the door for the others and Felicity smiled at him, even waved him goodbye before heading towards Sharon, looking like a miniature Carter cliché. It warmed Natasha's heart as she looked at how nice her little man was to others. Honestly, that kid had a heart of gold. Surprisingly, she couldn't figure out who he got it from since neither she or his father were such nice people, if they were nice people at all.

"Mommy!" he yelled when he spotted her in the crowd, which wasn't hard because of her flaming red hair and the fact that she was away from the others. He ran to her and she picked him up when he jumped, his backpack half-falling from his small shoulders.

"Come here my precious little man!" She kissed his cheeks a few times, making as much noise as possible. "Wow, you're getting heavier everyday! Soon, mommy's not going to be able to lift you!"

He laughed as she put his down and straightened the backpack. She didn't take it from him because he never let her. Stubborn and proud, just like her. Instead, he grabbed her hand and they were the first to walk out of the schoolyard. Natasha's car wasn't far away and so they raced to it, like every time she picked him up. There weren't many cars on the street so she knew it was safe and she always parked the car so his place would be on the sidewalk side.

He won this time, touching the car seconds before her and Natasha could hear the exasperated sighs of the other mothers that walked all the way to the school (which wasn't that far away from their houses, which wasn't the case of the Romanoff's apartment). Sometimes she let him win, others she didn't, but James was fast for his age and he was getting faster every time they raced. She let him unlock the car and strapped him safely inside, in the backseat on the right, so that she could more easily see him when she turned from the driver's seat on the left. She got in herself and turned to look at him on his high seat for kids his age.

"You ready?"

"Ready!" he answered with joy.

Natasha ignited the engine and let it roar loudly. She then got out of her parking position and accelerated to gain quickly speed, the engine roaring powerfully. She wasn't a materialist; she didn't brag about her possessions and didn't like to show them off. But James loved when she did that, she loved the powerful sound of the engine that was like music to her ears and it made all the mothers frown and yell, which only made James laugh more. Soon, she joined him in laughter but stopped when they reached a busy street, her Corvette slowing to the speed allowed.

"You're the coolest mom ever!" said James and Natasha smiled as she looked at her boy through the middle mirror.

"And you're the coolest kid in the entire New York City!"

James's back left his seat as he leaned forward.

"I'm happy you came today!"

She smiled even more.

"You have no idea what's waiting for you home, little man!" He gasped at that and asked her countless questions during the rest of the ride. But she kept her mouth shut and didn't reveal anything until they were home.

Their apartment was part of a small building that had only three floors. The bottom belonged to an old lady selling flowers and whenever Natasha brought the old woman some pancakes (the only thing she was a master at cooking and that James absolutely loved), she received free flowers. The second floor was Natasha's but mainly consisted of empty locals. She rented them to students in musical programs that needed to practice but couldn't afford a studio or to local bands. But she was the one to decide of the hours and the price at which she rented for the hour was one of the cheapest in the neighborhood so lots of students were coming between ten in the morning and four in the afternoon and only on week days.

The third floor was the apartment. It was pretty big and Natasha had turned half of it into a personal gym because she needed to stay fit for her job. It was also healthy and she liked it. So apart from the shop, the entire building was hers. And no, she didn't do any dirty jobs to get that much money.

Once they got home, James threw his backpack on a chair, took his shoes off and ran into the living room until Natasha called him to deal with his shoes and that no, it wasn't ok to leave them in the middle of the corridor. Since it was a little after four, the students from the music room below came knocking at her door to give her the keys back and thanked her. She trusted them not to run with the keys or the instruments, since she had received some as a heritage from her uncle Ivan. Besides, she had set cameras herself in every corner of the two floors, so she could easily catch the culprit.

Once her jacket was tucked aside and James had put his backpack in his room (probably throwing it on the bed, hoping it would hit the headdress because it would make a funny _clonk_ noise as James said), she called him in the kitchen/living room to eat the cake. James was delighted that it was chocolate. Natasha was concentrating to cut it equally with a huge knife she used with ease (which was part of her training, using the knife, not the cutting the cake) when James disturbed her.

"Mommy, there's Liho meowing outside!" he said, his two hands pressed against the glass of the double doors leading to the terrace.

"Let her in, then."

Natasha didn't cut the cake equally. When James had called her, the knife shifted and made a cut in the frosting. James wouldn't notice anyway. Oh well…

The black cat swiftly came in and James shut the doors. Liho purred and rubbed against the boy's legs and he caressed her head just like Natasha had taught him. Liho then jumped on one of the high chairs against the counter on which was the cake, curious to discover what that dark sweet smelling thing was. But as soon as she gracefully landed on the chair, Natasha pushed her and the cat fell to the floor with a light _thud_ , used to it but still testing her owner's limits. The cat then brushed her tail around Natasha's ankle and meowed.

"No Liho, I already fed you this morning some fresh chicken, remember? Go eat your dry food."

With one last meow, Liho disappeared in the corridor leading the Natasha's room, probably about to find a nice place between her pillows, leaving strays of black fur afterwards. Natasha and James then ate the cake and drank some juice, pineapple, James' favorite.

"Your father hated pineapple juice, you know?"

James's eyes widened and he shook his head, interested in what else she was going to say.

"I like it and he made fun of me, saying it was 'too exotic, too tropical' and he wondered how a Russian girl like me could like such an exotic juice."

James laughed and Natasha smiled. She always referred to his daddy as 'your father' whenever she talked about him to her son. James had never met him, he was gone before he was even born. Natasha had been alone from the beginning but she didn't blame her partner, boyfriend or whatever they were at the time. Now, he was just gone. Period.

"Hold on, buddy." She said after the cake, suddenly remembering the present.

She sped to her bedroom, opened the closet and took out the wrapped present. Just as she suspected, Liho was rolled in a ball between her two pillows, her small frame only visible because of the contrast of her black fur on the light purple sheets. Liho was a small cat and Natasha liked her graceful silhouette. She was cute, as James put it.

Natasha made her way back to the leaving room and gave her son his birthday present. She sat next to him on the couch and kissed the side of his head.

"Happy birthday buddy," she whispered, giving her boy his present. James dropped to the floor and ripped the wrapping, carefully taking off the red ribbon and attaching it to her hair. She let him do it, just because it was a special occasion. Besides, red looked good on her, just like black. Blood and darkness. She shook her head, chasing those thoughts away.

James was excited and delighted about his new gun toy. It was the size of a small rifle and had plastic darts with a soft end so he wouldn't hurt himself, the cat, or her because there was no way she let him play outside with that thing. She had actually laughed when she saw how untrue to the real version the toy was. But that was actually a good thing. One specialist with weapons was enough in the house. Clint was with her when she had bought it, her best friend shopping for new clothes for his baby boy, Nathanael. This time Natasha was the godmother, because for the previous two kids, Thomas and Lesly, Laura's sisters had come first, no matter how much Clint argued with his wife. When he saw Natasha buy the gun toy, he couldn't help but tease her.

"You want to prepare him or what? A gun toy for his sixth and a real glock for his eighteenth?"

Natasha had playfully whacked him on the shoulder.

"Don't be foolish. He'll do whatever he wants to do once he's grownup, but I'm not going to train him like I was forced to train myself to survive. But I'm sure he has my good aim. His father wasn't a bad shooter either."

Clint dropped it from then, not wanting to upset her further. He knew better than anyone else how sensitive her past was and how dangerous she could be when she really got angry. Sometimes Clint was a bit jealous of James because Natasha would never get mad at him that much, enough to harm him. But with her best friend? Sure!

"But we have to put some rules for that gun, alright buddy?" Natasha said to James after he had shot three darts across the living room, one landing in the cake, the other hitting her arm and the last making the lamp above sway slightly. "Be carefully when you use that and don't shoot at people or Liho. Don't take it outside and pick up all your darts because I'm not buying new ones, alright?"

He nodded and asked her if they could watch a film during his special evening. This year, Natasha had decided to have something casual, calm and nice with just her son and her. Last year they had gone over to the Barton's and even the Odison's had come. It had been a lovely day and maybe they could do that again for James's seventh birthday.

"Sure." She looked at the clock. "We'll even have time to watch two, if we start now. And yes, you're allowed to stay up an hour more today. So, you chose the first movie and I'll pick the second. How's that?"

"Alright, let's watch _Hercules_!" he said as he found the Disney among the numerous movies in a box. 'James's treasure' was written on it with a thick black pen.

"And I choose _Anastasia_!" Natasha said as she tossed him the second DVD.

"But that's a girl's movie!"

"Oh shush! You like the songs anyway!"

She made some sweet popcorn as he played the first film. Halfway through it, Natasha ordered James's favorite pizza and they ate in silence, both focused on the movie. Natasha wasn't one to watch silly romantic films with helpless heroines but she had to admit she liked the Disney's. Liho joined them at some point through _Anastasia_ and settled against Natasha's left hip on the couch. James was snuggling from the right. He fell asleep during the credits and Natasha picked him up gently then put him to bed. She stocked the leftovers in the fridge, extinguished all the lights and went to bed herself after taking the ribbon off her hair. Liho climbed in bed with her, her black fur very distinguishable in the moonlight but Natasha pushed her off the bed without being gentle. Liho didn't climb back and found her usual place on a leopard printed blanket under the window.


	2. Meeting Captain America

**Thank you guys so much for your review! Here's the new chapter, hope you'll enjoy it! I'm planning on bringing most of the characters from Marvel, but the Avenger side, not the X-Men side because I really don't know that much the latter. Hope you don't mind.**

 **TS**

* * *

Sunday came faster than Natasha expected. Sunday was their special day, she always spent it with James and she had made a point about that since she started working for SHIELD. That was her first condition when she joined the organization that offered the services of top quality bodyguards. She had told Fury she wanted to have every Sunday off, no matter what happened. Hell, she wouldn't leave James on their special day even if the President himself asked for her services.

The second condition was some kind of life insurance. Full financial support, a place to stay with food in the fridge, medical care of every sort, transportation and evacuation if need be, scholarships and a lot of other different things. But that wasn't for her, it was for James. In case anything happened to her, Natasha had made sure James would be taken care of and that Fury would help with that. Natasha had no family left and neither had James's father. But she had friends, she was sure the Bartons or Fosters could take care of her boy if she ended up in the ground before he was fully grownup.

Just like every Sunday, Natasha woke up at eight. Usually she'd wake up earlier to get everything ready for James, but on Sunday, it was special. He woke up at the same time as she and she allowed him to climb in her bed and lay there with her for a good half-hour. During that time they discussed various things, such as the things they wanted to do that day, what had happened during the previous week, some projects they had for the future. They both shared their thoughts and Natasha always insisted on honesty. She thought it was a great quality to have, especially since she had been plunged into so many lies in her past, she didn't want to do that again. Sure, she still lied from time to time, in her line of work she had to, just to keep her cover up. More than once she had been forced to pretend to be some important businessman's date so that she could stay close to him and protect him as his bodyguard. But there were enough things from work that she brought home and lies weren't going to be part of it.

After that lazy talking, they both dressed and washed, basically got ready for the day even though half the time they didn't leave home on Sundays. Natasha cooked pancakes while James draw in the kitchen next to her. She also made him do a bit of homework, most of the time it was reading and writing since the boy was at the age when kids learned that kind of stuff. That Sunday, she made him write his own name, then hers and his daddy's. Then James asked her to write their names in Russian, which Natasha did. She didn't force him to learn Russian, but often talked to him in her native language and the boy was already picking up some words. Fortunately, those words weren't the countless curses that escaped her lips.

James knew everything there was to know about his father. He knew his name and origin; he knew about his childhood, his work, how he had met his mom, for how long they had stayed together and what happened when he left. He also knew why he wasn't coming back and understood, even accepted it because it had been his reality ever since he was born. Natasha didn't mind telling her son some random details about his father but he knew where her limits were and never pushed them. That was another thing she was so proud about, how much her boy was mature for his age and how well he understood and respected certain things even some adults didn't.

After breakfast was Natasha's working out time and she set in the gym. On days when James had school and she started work late, she did some jogging, but never on Sunday. Instead, she did some gymnastics, punched a few bags and practiced her martial art positions, well as much as she could do alone. When Clint hadn't retired yet (before his youngest, Nathanael, was born), she practiced close range combat with him or rather on him. She was known in the New York Police Department as the Black Widow because her favorite fighting style was composed of locks (that she mostly did with her thighs, choking people to death or throwing them with the great strength of her legs). She had left the NYPD when her pregnancy didn't allow field work and was locked in the office until she was due. James's father left the picture even before she knew she was expecting. After that, she had left the Police and followed Clint to SHIELD where they both became bodyguards. That change in work didn't differ too much from the action and she was good at but it allowed her to be more flexible for James. And the pay was better.

So while she worked out in her well-furnished gym (seriously, it had everything, a ring for boxing, mats and stuff for gymnastics, target practice, sand bags, dummies and even bars for more athletic things, the only thing it lacked was a good place for running and a shooting range, but hey, you can't have everything in life, that would be boring), James played with his cars and robots. When he got bored and she wasn't done yet with punching that sand bag to death, she allowed him to use his new gun toy on the targets she had for knife throwing (although James didn't know it was for that).

They ate lunch together and then got ready for the party the Carter organized for Felicity's birthday. The Carters lived in one of the most expensive districts of New York, not very far from James' school. During the whole ride there, James held onto the gift he had wrapped himself and that contained a pony plushy. Natasha parked her car in the biggest yard she had ever seen, even bigger than SHIELD's parking lot. Different expensive cars were there, but none was as impressive and cool as hers. Natasha left the car and grabbed James before he could run into the garden where the party was taking place.

"Alright, listen up kiddo. You go and give that to Felicity and then you say hello to everyone. Be nice to the other kids, alright buddy? And try not to break anything," Natasha said and her son nodded before they both met the others in the garden.

Everybody turned and stopped talking when they saw the Romanoffs enter. Natasha was wearing her favorite civilian outfit which was composed of dark jeans, short boots and her leather jacket on a red sleeveless top. Her red hair was wavy and gave her devilishly beautiful features a fiery glow, her emerald green eyes shining under thick and long eyelashes. She didn't put any makeup on since she didn't really care about her appearance. She left her service gun at home since she wasn't working on Sunday. James was very cute and elegant in his little green shirt and Bermuda. All heads turned and people started whispering. They were all women except one lonely guy standing against the wall near the entrance to the giant house, far from the females. He didn't seem to mind though, had some sort of notebook in his hands. James did as he was told and greeted everyone before spotting Felicity and giving her the present. Natasha stayed next to the belvedere where the kids' table was but all the children were playing in the wide garden and she watched as James joined them.

"So glad you could come!" Sharon suddenly said, popping up behind Natasha. She didn't scare her because very few things or people could scare the bodyguard. Of course Carter would come to greet her since she was the host and had to look good in front of her guests.

Natasha politely smiled and reluctantly followed the hostess to the circle of mothers that were giggling and gossiping. Everyone held a glass of wine or champagne, and looked at the Russian woman as if she had two heads. The mothers looked rather curious though and so one of them asked:

"So, Natalia, right?"

Natasha thought that she probably mistook her name not on purpose because there was no way she could know it was actually her real name. Or at least that's the name her mother had given her but that she abandoned after her death. Only two people knew about it: Clint and Fury. Even Hill and Coulson didn't know and Natasha was rather close to them or at least used to be.

"It's Natasha actually."

"What do you do in life?" asked the same mother as if she didn't hear the correction or decided to ignore it.

Every woman seemed interested in the sudden question and Natasha took a deep breath before taking her jacket off, since it was quite warm that afternoon and all the mothers were wearing dresses. The man behind them was still leaning against the wall, but now had a beer in his hands and seemed to watch the children but Natasha was pretty sure he wasn't the nanny. He seemed a little bit out of place with his white sleeveless shirt that showed his buff biceps and all the delicious muscles of his chest. He seemed peaceful as if looking at the kids relaxed him and somehow, he seemed to belong there. Natasha couldn't help but stare at him until he looked back and she was done taking her jacket off, revealing her red top and, more importantly, her scars. She didn't have any recent wounds or bruises to show but a very nasty scar could be seen on her left shoulder, bullet wound that had gone through her flesh during her days in the NYPD.

Some of the mothers gasped, Sharon didn't say anything, others sniggered, some even looked away, hands raised to their open mouths and on their chests out of disgust and surprise. The scar the size of a 9 mm bullet wasn't pretty but it had healed rather nicely, Natasha had always healed well and faster than average.

"I'm a bodyguard," she answered. "I work for SHIELD."

One of the mothers chimed in. "My husband was escorted by a SHIELD agent one day, right up to Toronto to assist a very important political meeting since he's an ambassador."

Natasha nodded but didn't say anything. She remembered that contract though and the fact that Coulson had been the agent escorting the ambassador. All bodyguards were called agents at SHIELD. Natasha was now friends with all of them, but had taken a particular liking in only a few. Clint Barton had retired but he had been one of the best and he was a better shot that she was which she had always respected since very few people could do that. Then there was Maria Hill who had started as a regular bodyguard, then became Fury's right hand and had finally decided to leave the organization and the world of action behind. She was now the director at James' school. Brock Rumlow and Phil Coulson were other agents, the later replacing Hill.

"Have you been a bodyguard your entire life? It seems to be a dangerous thing to do while raising a child," another mother let out.

"Well, I've worked for…"

"Ladies, please don't bother Miss Romanoff too much! You're like a swarm of bees around honey!" someone yelled from the house.

 _More like a group of sharks around fresh meat_ , Natasha thought as she watched a woman emerge from the house, a plate with glasses of wine on it. She had dark brown hair tied with a red ribbon in a way that reminded the agent of the forties. She gave one of the glasses filled with white French wine to Natasha and smiled at her.

"I'm Peggy, Sharon's sister."

The other mothers then started talking about their husbands until they all turned to Natasha. Some seemed embarrassed though and blushed, even looked away but Natasha held her head high and looked at the man way behind them who was probably out of ear shot anyway. But he wasn't watching the kids, he was looking directly at her.

"No, James' father is not in the picture anymore, never has been. And no, I didn't have a one-night stand or I didn't get so drunk I couldn't remember. James's father was a wonderful man and he gave me a wonderful boy."

With that said, Natasha excused herself and put the glass down on the table before heading for the house. Or that's what every woman believed because as soon as Natasha was five feet away, they got on with their conversations, completely ignoring the kids playing on the other side of the gardens. Natasha didn't walk into the house, she stopped next to the man leaning against the wall. When he saw her approaching, he straightened up, stood with both feet on the ground and politely said "Good afternoon, ma'am!" which such booming voice it reminded her of the army.

Natasha smiled when she saw the dog tags hanging around his neck. He had blonde hair, muscular built and baby blue eyes that she could stare at forever. His posture was rigid and looked almost painful, but Natasha immediately saw it had been practiced hundreds of times. The dog tags were the final touch that only confirmed her suspicions about his field of work.

"So, which one is yours?" Natasha let out as she looked at the children playing in the distance.

The man blushed.

"None, I'm just a cousin of the Carters," he quickly answered. "You look like you could use a beer. Care to join me?" He suddenly asked and grabbed the second beer that was standing on the wall, next to his notebook and pencil. "I was going to enjoy it myself, but I might as well share it with a beautiful lady…" Suddenly he blushed. "Not that I'm trying to get you drunk or anything! I just…"

Natasha smiled at his red cheeks and stuttering words which took out all the pressure the blonde man had put on his own shoulders. She took the beer and uncapped it with ease, then pressed it against his beer to cheer.

"Sorry… it seems I forgot how to talk to women without getting embarrassed…" the man said. _That could explain why he stayed away from the cluster of mothers near the belvedere_ , Natasha thought. "That's what you get for spending eight years with mostly dudes."

Natasha laughed and the man seemed to like her laugh because he smiled back. She took a quick sip of her beer before sliding one hand in her front jeans pocket. She motioned to the dog tags.

"Two tours I suppose? Where were you sent?"

"Somalia. Just came back like three weeks ago. Got tired of it all. Sharon actually insisted I come today and I couldn't deny it to her after such a long absence. She insists on finding me a fancy flat whereas something nice and cozy would suffice," he said.

After a small silence, he added "she's my cousin, so is Peggy. I couldn't just miss Felicity's birthday."

Natasha smiled more before taking another sip and a quick glance at the children. James was playing nicely with the others. The kids were loud but whose children weren't? The blonde man was about to ask her name but she spoke first, folding her arms on her chest and tilting slightly the beer to the side without spilling any of it.

"James's father was also in the army and left before I even knew I was expecting."

"How did he go?"

That was just an assumption, since she had used the past tense, so the blonde man wasn't really sure about it, but his guts told him James's father didn't come back. Also the way the red-haired woman next to him stood and the far away intonation of her voice were good clues. It was as if her only option for coping with her loss was to take some distance, to protect herself from the pain and probably her son too.

"Grenade exploded next to him. Blew his arm off. He was evacuated, was even on his way home but he lost too much blood." Sensing what his next question would be, Natasha added "he died six years ago in Iraq."

The man then frowned and put his beer on the wall before turning fully to her, completely forgetting the children.

"Hold on, did you name your son after him?"

It was Natasha's turn to frown.

"Did you know him?" she asked.

"I think his name was James Buchanan…"

"…Barnes. Bucky." Natasha finished.

"Oh my god! You're Bucky's girlfriend? He told us so much about you!"

"How come you know him?" Natasha asked. She couldn't believe her ears.

"We trained together and became good friends before we were each sent elsewhere, I went to Somalia and he got to Iraq. He always talked about his red-haired and beautiful girlfriend and how he missed her. He was a good man."

He didn't want to push it, so he didn't say anything else and turned his attention back to the kids to allow Natasha some privacy. But he could see in the corner of his eyes that she was moved by his words and it made him smile in his mind. He then pulled out his hand for her to shake.

"I'm Steve Rogers, by the way."

"Natasha Romanoff," she answered, shaking his hand with a firm grasp. "Rogers as in Captain America Steven Rogers?"

A smile had appeared on her face, but it was different from before. That one was slightly curled around her left upper lip, allowing a hint of white teeth to shine and her eyes were gleaming playfully. She was teasing and to his surprise, he suddenly found her very attractive, even sexy. She just suddenly seemed so wild as if she was showing him another side of her, a sassy side that was as true and natural as her previous more relaxed side.

"God! Bucky mentioned that in his letters, didn't he?" Steve knew Bucky had been insisting on sending Natasha letters and that she did the same, that way he could keep them with him and read them at night when he got lonely. He said he wanted a trace of her rather than an email he would read and forget.

Natasha nodded. "He didn't tell me how you got that nickname though."

Just like in any group of friends, nicknames always came in at some point. Hers was Black Widow for instance, although she hadn't been married to Barnes. Bucky was called the Winter Soldier, mostly because he didn't mind the cold and would never complain about snow. He even offered her once to take a trip to Russia, because he wanted to discover her country of birth and figured she might want some good old memories of her childhood to come back. He had mentioned it after a particularly rough step in their relationships where they almost broke up after an incident Natasha didn't want to think about.

But at this point, she could only guess how Steve had gotten his nickname. He blushed even more than before and she was starting to see a pattern, that he blushed whenever he was about to say or did something truly embarrassing. To his standards at least.

"I was a Captain in the army and at times, I was very patriotic. But one day, Bucky and the other mates caught me in the showers, wearing the star-spangled boxers Peggy had given me. That kind of sealed the deal."

Natasha laughed so hard she almost spilled her beer. It took her two minutes to calm herself and she didn't give a shit about the other mothers, looking strangely at her and clearly disapproving her behavior. After whipping some last tear from her emerald green eyes, Natasha finished her beer.

"Well, now I understand why Bucky didn't mention it. He was probably laughing to hard trying to find the right words to say it." Her laughter came back but she stopped it, realizing she might have been too far. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't ha…"

"It's okay, I like your laugh, it's beautiful. And it was kind of funny."

They spend the rest of the afternoon talking about all sorts of things, mostly about Bucky, Natasha's job and Steve's plans. He had decided to quit the army and wanted to try to live as an artist. He had a solid bank account thanks to his service for his country so if it didn't work, he wouldn't end up under a bridge (because there was no way he'd live with the Carters forever, he liked his cousins but hated being a burden). Occasionally, they had to join the others for the cake or some activities with the children, but Natasha didn't mind since Steve stayed with her as if he was glad to have met her. Surprisingly, he was amazing with children and really had a heart of gold. James took a liking in him immediately, even more when he learned that he had been a good friend of his father. Steve then had to promise to see James again to tell him stories of his father in the army, the things Natasha didn't know because she hadn't been there.

In the end, Natasha stayed longer than she had intended, talking to Steve over beers and even Peggy joined them. The afternoon was so bad after all. Sharon stayed with them a little bit too but she wasn't really interested in the passionate conversations the others shared. Natasha learned that Steve was actually the Carters far away cousin, that their blood wasn't that much shared and that Steve had dated Peggy before the army for a few months before they both realized it wasn't working out. Peggy was cool with it and started even to notice how eager Steve was to talk with Natasha. She made a silent promise to help them out if they turned too stubborn to get together. Happy with her newly found devilish plan, she simply listened to them, occasionally turning her attention to the guests that left one after the other.

Natasha and James were the last ones to leave when the boy was starting to get tired. Sharon offered them to stay for dinner, but Natasha politely refused, explaining that they had to feed the cat (but that was a lie since Liho was fed in the morning and James was too tired to notice the lie) and James had school the next morning (and Natasha work, but she wouldn't use that as an excuse since she liked Steve). Steve didn't ask for her number when they said goodbye at her car. She put James inside after he waved at Felicity who held dearly her pony plushy. Natasha checked his seat and belts. Then she closed the door and allowed herself a few more seconds with Steve.

"So, I'll see you around, I guess?" Steve asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, I don't think you'll meet me at work," she laughed a little at that (Steve knew she was a bodyguard and she had told him a few things from her time in the NYPD, especially her friendship with Barton; Steve mentioned that he saw a similar guy in his favorite bar but he might be mistaken). "But I'm very fond of a certain café on Fifth Avenue, you might see me grabbing a coffee at some point, or one of my colleagues - ties and tuxes, you can't miss them – if you decide to play it like the inspired artist drawing in cafés instead of home."

He wished her a safe trip back home and said he'd like to see it again, but she simply gave him the sassy smirk oh so sexy and drove off. She was too far away to see him slap his forehead with his palm because he forgot to ask her number, but Peggy sure didn't miss that and smiled to herself that the first step of her love-matching plan was in motion without her even interfering.


	3. A normal day at SHIELD

The next Monday a new week started.

"Get your ass into gear James Viktor Romanoff or you won't have dessert for dinner tonight!" Natasha yelled from the kitchen as she packed her son's lunch. The kids had a trip to the local national wild park. Peggy Carter and Laura Barton were two of the teachers that accompanied the children. Although Natasha didn't like Sharon one bit, she found Peggy really nice and respectable. Maria Hill, a good friend of Natasha because she had been SHIELD's second in command years ago, was currently the school's director and had told Natasha about the trip in detail over coffee the other day. She just knew that Natasha liked to know where her son was because she did have some trust issues. Especially with things such as school that relied too much on administration and on a government that was composed of people with their own agendas. Fury had his own agenda too, but Natasha could keep an eye on him, something she couldn't do with the government.

Things were unusually made in a rush that morning. Because he was so excited, James didn't attach the buttons on his shirt correctly and Natasha had to undo and redo them. Liho made a fuss about her dry food, not wanting to eat a bit of it and Natasha ended up kicking her out. She left the bowls of water and food on the terrace. The first music students would be arriving later, at eight it was still too early for them and Natasha only allowed her locals to be used between 10 am and 4 pm. Before heading out of the apartment, Natasha checked her gun, grabbed her purse and looked at the calendar next to the front door. All the students that had booked her locals were written on the calendar. Today there was a local band for the morning but the afternoon there were three different groups of students up to 4 pm. Sometimes she was there to give them the keys for the locals, sometimes she wasn't and that Monday was one of those days where she spent the entire day at work. She left the key under the mattress on the second floor. She trusted the people that rented her place and never had problems. But if anything happened, she could always track them. Besides, they paid in advance for the rental, so she didn't complain.

At eight fifteen, they were finally in the car and Natasha attached James to his seat in the back. She checked his belts three times to be sure she hadn't missed a thing. That Monday was also a day where she drove very fast to get him to school in time. They made it, but barely. Natasha ignored the other cars that started to honk at her. She didn't do anything wrong: they were just too slow and she was just too much in a hurry to worry about the heavy and loud roaring of her black Corvette Stingray. She pulled in front of the school yard, all brakes screaming. _Perfect stop,_ she realized with a smile as she checked the distance between her car and the two she had stopped between.

"Come on James. Give me a kiss and off you go!" Natasha said as James undid his belts and hopped from his seat. He planted a wet big kiss on his mother's cheek and she kissed his forehead before he got out of the car and ran to his friends, his backpack halfway falling off his shoulders as usual. Natasha noticed Laura in the crowd of children gathered in the schoolyard. Clint's wife waved at her and Natasha waived back before smiling and putting her sunglasses on. Then she drove to work.

Things were busy at SHIELD when she arrived some good half hour after nine. It wasn't busy all the time, but some agents (that's what they were called in the agency) started working early and stayed late. Most of the communication people for instance or direction. SHIELD was actually composed of different kind of people. The direction was on top and included Fury and Coulson among others. People from direction usually dealt with the government if something went wrong during an important mission, they were also in charge of the approval of new recruits and financial resources. Then came the bodyguards or agents of which Natasha was part with a lot of others. They were all a part of operations. Then there was the communication community that received all the job offers, treated them, negotiated and assessed threat levels. They also put agents on jobs according to what was needed and who was available. Then there were the janitors who didn't have much to do more than in any normal company because, apart from the occasional parties and meetings, most of the work happened outside of SHIELD's premises. Where they had to actually protect people and escort them.

Natasha entered SHIELD headquarters and headed for the elevator at the end of the great hall. She nodded to the lady at the front desk. _Communication_. She walked next to a guy in a dark blue uniform. _Janitor_. When she was nearly at the elevator, she was greeted by two guys in black. _Operations_. A lady in a suit walked out of the elevator and didn't acknowledge anybody's presence. _Direction_.

As Natasha was getting closer to the elevator, a small jingle could be heard. It was the beginning of the soundtrack of some show, something called Marv-something, Natasha didn't really know or care. She sighed. Only one person at SHIELD would use that jingle before announcing something and Natasha could already tell it wasn't going to be bright or pleasant.

 ** _"_** ** _Hello everybody, this is Agent Johnson speaking. All of the agents that reported for duty this morning and don't have an assignment yet should head for the meeting room 23 on the second floor. And Romanoff, you better move your ass because I know you're late!"_**

Natasha didn't blush: she was used to that kind of talk. She didn't tell Agent Johnson to stop for two reasons. First, because she liked her sassy behavior and her stupid jokes, besides no one else could pull that off with as much style as her. Second, because she didn't want to hurt her. Agent Johnson was very capable in defending herself, she was almost as good as Natasha herself, but she was often reckless and distracted. Natasha sighed again as she entered the elevator and rode it to the second floor. Agent Johnson was the only one that would and could keep an eye on all the cameras at SHIELD. No wonder she had called her out especially.

Natasha arrived in the meeting room 23 at the same time as Agent Morse. The tall blond greeted her with a smile but didn't say anything else because she knew that Romanoff wasn't very talkative in the morning, especially not after the trick Johnson had pulled. Natasha knew Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse quite well because the woman had been married to Clint for three years. Now Clint was married to Laura and Bobbi was married to Hunter, although it was already her second marriage to Hunter. They were constantly breaking up and putting themselves back and so Natasha wondered why bother marry in the first place if all they intended to do was fight.

Brock Rumlow and Melinda May were already in the room, chatting. Natasha greeted them with a dry nod of the head, just like she had done to the lady at the reception desk. Melinda answered the same way. Natasha was very close to May without having to bother talking to her. They were often thinking the same, had similar fighting styles and weren't very talkative, their body language telling everything there was to know. They also had a lot in common, both being from other countries than America (Natasha was Russian and Melinda was Chinese), both preferred close range combat and both would always do what needs to be done.

Agents Alphonse Mackenzie and Antoine Triplet followed and started talking to Bobbi until Agent Johnson arrived. Daisy Johnson was no more than twenty-five years old and yet she possessed one of the most vital positions at SHIELD: communication leader. All assignments were approved by her; she even took care of the most complicated herself, often having to make the difficult choice of choosing between two excellent agents for the most dangerous missions. She also was head of security and had eyes and ears everywhere. Nothing happened at HQ without her knowing. And she often embarrassed people publicly using the main announcement system like earlier. She also used it for birthdays and congratulations on different stuff, so she wasn't that bad.

She had been practically raised by Philip Coulson who had recruited her a few years back. She was a very capable agent but because of her recklessness and the fact that she was the best at communication and hacking (that's actually how Coulson had noticed her), she wasn't always in the field. Usually she had one mission as bodyguard per month.

She closed the door behind her and approached the white board on which she projected images from her tablet. Her short brown hair reached her shoulders and a small headset with a mike rested in her ear. A badge with "Agent D. 'Skye' Johnson" was pinned to her leather jacket. The word 'Skye' had been added with a pink felt pen. She wore leather jackets since May had finished training her some year ago. Coulson, May and Johnson shared a very strong link, almost like a family. They were always there to look out for each other just like Morse and Hunter were always bickering. Just a normal day at SHIELD.

Daisy held her tablet tighter and looked at the agents in the room. "Agent Hunter is going to be late but I forgive him. He's on coffee duty." At that, Natasha wondered if Steve was currently sitting in that coffee shop she had told him about, playing the whole new bohemian artist thing she was certain he would do. "So, let's go over the assignments for this week." Johnson was efficient that way: she always planned ahead and took into account the agents' availability. Like the fact that Natasha wanted the Sunday off to be with James or didn't mind working hard for three days straight if that meant she could have the next three days free.

"Let's start with today. We have Mack, May, Trip and Romanoff." Everyone at SHIELD was called by their last name, sometimes adding the 'Agent' before, although Daisy always gave nicknames, some more respectful than others. Natasha liked it that way, it stayed professional. "Mack, the mayor of New York is going for a trip to England, so you'll be going with him for the next four days." The imposing and tall Mack nodded and folded his dark arms on his broad chest. "Trip, you'll handle the extraction of the two reporters that went to Syria. They got into trouble like two hours ago and will be waiting for you in the JFK Airport in three hours. The specs will be in the files as always but you'll basically have to escort them to Chicago where their HQ is."

She swiped a few times on her tablet and some of the specs of the mission appeared for everyone to see. But Daisy never revealed the full operation. That's why she created files with limited access, so that only the agent doing the job would have the full details. SHIELD wasn't an intelligence agency, but they took themselves seriously.

"May and Romanoff, you take Stark." May sighed at that and brought her hand to cover her face, hiding her displeasure. "I know you don't like him. But Romanoff has experience with him and it's a two men op. You'll figure it out." Anthony Stark's face appeared on the screen along with texts about the mission and pictures of the itinerary and detail about transportation.

"That's it for today. The others are on paperwork duty and surveillance." Morse nodded. Surveillance meant two things in Daisy Johnson's book: looking at the camera and doing the dumb job of looking at it again for the next couple of hours. Or it meant taking care of certain calls. Most of the calls that SHIELD received were transmitted to the communication department where the communication community negotiated and prepared the missions (and preparation also meant looking stuff up, like the best route, the most adapted transportation and such). So most calls to communication were actually coming back and forth between SHIELD and the contractor until an agreement was reached.

The other calls were about recruitment, new tech and resources, practical stuff and usually the stuff they used on missions. Since they didn't have any scientists or engineers on board, even though some agents had a few skills in those domains like Mack who loved tinkering with engines, they signed contracts with labs and factories to buy all they needed for missions. So since a lot of bodyguards didn't work every day, they took care of surveillance, especially those that possessed a few skills, that way they knew what they were talking about when signing. Of course, every signature came from direction but all the work beforehand was done in surveillance. So it could be counted as a small group in between communication and operations. Most people at SHIELD believed it was Daisy who introduced all those intelligence terms because she was a huge geek. Natasha didn't care: it was practical and simple, that's all that mattered.

Natasha listened to the planning for the rest of the week. She had another assignment on Tuesday and Thursday, but these were small fishes. Stark was the real deal and she could already picture him tiring her. But she had more patience with the billionaire than May. Once every assignment for the week was delivered, Daisy gave everyone access to their own files. Natasha took one of the tablets from the meeting table and saw that she could only access the three missions she had for the week. But she was also capable of accessing all of SHIELD's database if she wanted to. When she had arrived at SHIELD five years ago, she had tried a lot of different specializations before setting for espionage and covers. Hacking had somehow been engraved in her brain and she often wondered if she could override Daisy's programs. She had never tried to find an exploit, but hey, you never knew.

May was specialized in driving and flying, she was a true master behind the wheel. She was also very good at covers and fighting in general, but all agents were supposed to be good at fighting and weapons shooting. Morse had a preference for technologies and Mack for mechanics. Rumlow would rather stick with weaponry, especially heavy weaponry. Campbell was really good at medical and was the one that negotiated all new drugs during surveillance. Hunter and Trip didn't really have a specialty. Clint had been a specialist in long range not guns weapons. He was weird that way but give him a bow and he would shoot you in the eye from a hundred yards blindfolded. These were the agents Natasha spent most time with usually.

When everyone had grabbed a tablet to study the assignments somewhere calm, Hunter barged in, panting and almost spilling all the coffees on himself. "Gott'em!" he yelled and handed everyone their cup. A small piece of paper coming from his hoodie pocket (yes, hoodie, when it came to operations and communication, SHIELD wasn't picky on the outfits) told Natasha he had written everyone's favorite flavor in order not to forget. He was left with two cups, his own and someone else's.

"Wait, where's Pikachu?" Hunter called Agent Lincoln Campbell that since the day the latter was forced to wear a Pikachu hoodie to work because he lost a bet against Daisy.

Daisy blushed but took Lincoln's cup. "Sparky stayed at home. Has the flu." Daisy always called the other agents by her last names when they were working. But when it came to gossip and small talk, she always found the weirdest nicknames (Mack helped) and Lincoln was often first in line. For as long as Natasha could remember, Daisy had nicknamed Lincoln Sparky, Sparkplug, Pikachu, my sweet Pichu when she wanted something, Raichu when she was pissed or when she thought he was being obnoxious, Mr. the doctor, Linky (he hated that one), toaster, microwave, bulb head and smarty pants. She had a bunch of nicknames for everybody and used them on different occasions. For Natasha she had Nat, Tasha (the two most common), Black Widow (thanks to her NYPD days), leather devil, succubus (don't ask), Lara Croft, Charizard, Tzarina (more as a joke although Daisy was still looking at a link between Natasha and the Russian Tzar family), velvet and Scarlett. And thigh swinger because of her signature move.

When everyone was gone, Natasha stayed in the room and studied the assignment specs with May. They were supposed to meet Stark at his company Stark Industries and escort him from New York to Washington during the afternoon. His CEO Pepper Potts and head of security Happy Hogan were also coming, that's why it was a two men job. Also, Stark had recently been the target of an unknown group causing trouble and ruckus along the East coast. And Stark had personally asked for Romanoff because she had already done a couple of jobs with him a few years back.

"Don't worry, I'll keep him busy," Natasha said to May once they finished looking through the files and had agreed to meet at the entrance of HQ one hour before the beginning of the mission.

"You better, otherwise I'll smash his head in the windshield," May responded with a slight smile.


End file.
